(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication method and a method and apparatus for identifying communication links.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Communication links are required in order for a communication device to communicate with another communication devices. If there are multiple communication devices, multiple communication links may be present. A variety of methods are used to distinguish multiple communication links. In a cellular network, a communication link exists only between a base station (or relay station) and a terminal, and a terminal identifier is used to identify the communication link. In a MESH or AD-HOC network, each communication device performs communication with multiple adjacent communication devices. Thus, identifiers of transmission and reception devices are used to identify communication links. Recently, the cellular network standard (IEEE 802.16.1a) has provided direct communications between terminals. Unique addresses of a transmitting terminal and a receiving terminal are used to identify links in direct communication, which applies only to direct communications between terminals within the same cell.
Link identification information may be included in control information or data information. Accordingly, it is necessary to identify a large number of links with as small an amount of link identification information as possible, in order to reduce the overhead caused by the link identification information.
The use of a terminal identifier for link identification may cause privacy and security problems. Therefore, other types of identification systems are required for link identification.